Senior Penetration Testing Researcher

Our Mission

At Palo Alto Networks®, we’re united by a shared mission—to protect our digital way of life. We thrive at the intersection of innovation and impact, solving real-world problems with cutting-edge technology and bold thinking. Here, everyone has a voice, and every idea counts. If you’re ready to do the most meaningful work of your career alongside people who are just as passionate as you are, you’re in the right place.

Who We Are

In order to be the cybersecurity partner of choice, we must trailblaze the path and shape the future of our industry. This is something our employees work at each day and is defined by our values: Disruption, Collaboration, Execution, Integrity, and Inclusion. We weave AI into the fabric of everything we do and use it to augment the impact every individual can have. If you are passionate about solving real-world problems and ideating beside the best and the brightest, we invite you to join us!

We believe collaboration thrives in person. That’s why most of our teams work from the office full time, with flexibility when it’s needed. This model supports real-time problem-solving, stronger relationships, and the kind of precision that drives great outcomes.

Job Summary

We are looking for an experienced Senior Security Researcher to join Idira Labs, a product-focused security research team dedicated to strengthening the security of Idira products.

In this role, you will lead advanced penetration testing and vulnerability research across cloud, web, mobile, and AI-enabled systems. You will combine deep manual research with secure code review, automation, and AI-assisted techniques to uncover complex vulnerabilities and drive meaningful security improvements across the product portfolio.

You will own research initiatives from initial threat modeling and attack-surface analysis through exploitation, reporting, and remediation validation, partnering closely with software architects and engineering teams to translate research findings into resilient product design.

Key Responsibilities

- Lead proactive penetration testing and vulnerability research across Idira products, services, and supporting architectures.
- Discover, validate, and demonstrate the impact of complex vulnerabilities using manual research, code review, dynamic analysis, and automated techniques.
- Conduct security evaluations of AI architectures, LLM-powered applications, agentic frameworks, tool integrations, and AI-assisted application pipelines.
- Own security research projects end to end—from defining scope and attack scenarios to communicating findings and validating remediation.
- Build and customize scripts, tools, and automation that improve research coverage, repeatability, and scale.
- Partner with Engineering and Architecture teams to translate findings into actionable mitigations, secure design patterns, and long-term product improvements.
- Evaluate emerging offensive security techniques, AI-assisted research tools, and automated exploitation frameworks.
- Drive innovative security research throughout the year and share relevant insights internally and, where appropriate, with the broader security community.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

- 5+ years of hands-on experience in security research, penetration testing, offensive security, or product security.
- Proven experience performing security assessments of cloud, web, and mobile applications.
- Strong secure code-review skills, including the ability to identify vulnerabilities, understand exploitability, and assess business impact.
- Hands-on experience with offensive security tools, SAST and DAST technologies, and automated vulnerability-discovery frameworks.
- Experience using AI coding assistants or AI-assisted security tools as part of research and testing workflows.
- Strong security fundamentals and the ability to develop custom scripts, tools, or proof-of-concept exploits.
- Familiarity with AI threat modeling, LLM and agent security, prompt-injection techniques, and AI safety evaluation methodologies.
- Demonstrated ability to independently drive complex research projects in a fast-moving product environment.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and Hebrew.

Preferred Qualifications

- Offensive Security certifications such as OSCP, OSWE, OSEP, OSCE3, or equivalent.
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
- Experience in a leading military technology or intelligence unit, or equivalent advanced industry experience.
- A track record of security publications, technical blog posts, open-source tools, or presentations at security conferences.
- Demonstrated security research impact through CVE disclosures, bug-bounty findings, or other responsibly disclosed vulnerabilities.

Our Commitment

We’re trailblazers that dream big, take risks, and challenge cybersecurity’s status quo. It’s simple: we can’t accomplish our mission without diverse teams innovating, together.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for all qualified individuals with a disability. If you require assistance or accommodation due to a disability or special need, please contact us at   [email protected] .

Palo Alto Networks is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity in our workplace, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or other legally protected characteristics.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Is role eligible for Immigration Sponsorship? No. Please note that we will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.